1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith

Overview

The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (universally known as the 1689) was drafted in 1677 by Particular Baptist ministers in England and formally published in 1689 under the more tolerant climate that followed the Glorious Revolution and the Act of Toleration. Its primary authors are unknown by name, though Benjamin Keach and William Collins are traditionally associated with its production. It was adopted by over one hundred Particular Baptist congregations at a general assembly in 1689.

The document is self-consciously derivative. Its framers took the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) and the Congregationalist Savoy Declaration (1658) as their direct source texts, revising them primarily in two areas: ecclesiology and baptism. The strategy was deliberate, by working within the language and structure of Westminster, the Particular Baptists were demonstrating that their disagreements with Presbyterians were narrow and ecclesiological, not theological. On the doctrines of Scripture, God, creation, providence, sin, covenant, soteriology, and eschatology, the 1689 speaks with one voice with the broader Reformed tradition.

Historical Context

The Particular Baptists emerged in the 1630s and 1640s from Separatist and Reformed circles in England. The First London Baptist Confession (1644) was their initial public statement, brief, polemical, aimed at distinguishing Particular Baptists from the General Baptists (who held Arminian soteriology) and from the Anabaptist movement on the Continent. By the 1670s, the Particular Baptists had grown into a mature movement and needed a more comprehensive confessional standard.

The 1677 draft was produced during the reign of Charles II, when Nonconformists faced legal penalties under the Conventicle Acts. The confession was published quietly and without fanfare. When religious toleration came in 1689, the Particular Baptists republished it publicly, appending the names of the subscribing congregations. The 1689 date attached to the document reflects this public adoption, not the date of composition.

Theological Distinctives

Credobaptism. The most significant departure from Westminster is in Chapter 29, which restricts baptism to those who personally profess repentance and faith. The Confession explicitly rejects infant baptism. The mode is immersion, “dipping or plunging the whole body under water.” This was not merely a change of practice but a change of covenantal theology: the 1689 understands the new covenant as a community of the regenerate, not a mixed community of believers and their children.

Congregational polity. Chapter 26 on the church reflects a congregationalist rather than presbyterian understanding of church government. Each local congregation is self-governing under Christ. There is no binding authority of synods or assemblies over individual churches, though voluntary fellowship and counsel between churches is commended.

Reformed soteriology intact. On the doctrines of grace, the 1689 reproduces Westminster essentially verbatim. Total depravity, unconditional election, definite atonement, effectual calling, and perseverance of the saints are all affirmed in full. Justification is by faith alone on the basis of Christ’s imputed righteousness alone.

The covenant of grace. The 1689 affirms covenant theology in Chapter 7, but its understanding of how the new covenant relates to the old is distinctively Baptist. The old covenant administered the covenant of grace through types and shadows; the new covenant is the covenant of grace in its full and final administration, consisting of those who are genuinely regenerate.

Structure

Thirty-two chapters, following Westminster’s order closely:

• Chapters 1–2: Scripture and God
• Chapters 3–5: Decree, Creation, Providence
• Chapters 6–7: Fall, Sin, and Covenant
• Chapters 8–18: Christ, Free Will, and the Order of Salvation
• Chapters 19–21: Law, Gospel, Liberty
• Chapters 22–25: Worship, Oaths, Civil Government, Marriage
• Chapters 26–30: Church, Ordinances, Baptism, Lord’s Supper
• Chapters 31–32: Death, Resurrection, Judgment

A Key Passage

Full Text

The full text of the 1689 London Baptist Confession is available at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library and at the Association of Reformed Baptist Churches of America.